Some computing devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, etc.) may provide a graphical keyboard as part of a graphical user interface for composing text using a presence-sensitive display (e.g., a screen). The graphical keyboard may enable a user of the computing device to enter text (e.g., an e-mail, a text message, or a document, etc.). For instance, a presence-sensitive display of a computing device may output a graphical (or “soft”) keyboard that enables the user to enter data by indicating (e.g., by tapping) keys displayed at the presence-sensitive display.
In some cases, a computing device may present a continuous-gesture graphical keyboard (sometimes referred to as a “combo gesture keyboard,” or “gesture keyboard”) with which a user can enter a character string by performing a continuous gesture that corresponds to the character string. For example, the computing device may determine that a user has entered a character string when the computing device receives an indication of a movement of an input object (i.e., an object used to provide input such as a finger or stylus) over regions of the presence-sensitive screen associated with keys for the letters of the character string. In this way, continuous-gesture graphical keyboards may allow a user to enter a character string or group of character strings with a single gesture. As such, a continuous-gesture graphical keyboard may allow the user to achieve a certain degree of input efficiency. Entry of text in this way may be referred to as “gesture typing.”
As the user inputs text, the user may need to input punctuation marks, such as commas, periods, exclamation points, question marks, quotation marks, apostrophes, colons, and so on. Because the on-screen keyboards of many mobile devices are small, the on-screen keyboards may not have dedicated keys for each of the punctuation marks that a user may want to use when inputting text. Instead, when the user wants to input a punctuation mark, the user may instruct the mobile computing device to switch the displayed graphical keyboard from a graphical keyboard that has keys for letters to a graphical keyboard that has keys for punctuation marks (i.e., a punctuation-specific graphical keyboard). The user may then select the desired punctuation mark from the graphical keyboard that has keys for punctuation marks. Alternatively, in some examples, when the user wants to input a punctuation mark, the user may have to press and hold a key that doubles for a letter and a punctuation mark. Thus, in such examples, graphical keys may be repurposed for multiple meanings (e.g., lower case, upper case, numbers, punctuation, etc.).